


The "A" Stands for Art

by MickyRC



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - No Powers, Alternate Universe - Teachers, Clint Barton can't shut up, Gen, Kinda, Natasha Romanov Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers Is a Good Bro, Steve Rogers might have social anxiety, Who am I kidding they're all Good Bros, anyway, but that's pretty much par for the course, except for Parker, here's a thing, they're at a high school but they're not high schoolers
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-12
Updated: 2019-02-12
Packaged: 2019-10-26 23:15:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,836
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17755343
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MickyRC/pseuds/MickyRC
Summary: Steve Rogers never thought he'd get a job this perfect.  Which probably means something's up.  Something about the other teachers at his new school isn't quite adding up, and he's not sure the students do, either.  But when you're an art teacher in this job market, you take what you can get, robots crashing through walls or not.





	The "A" Stands for Art

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so... it's a high school AU. But the Avengers and crew are the teachers. That basically sums it up. Not sure how long this will go on, but knowing me it's going to get out of hand real fast. I guess we'll just have to wait and see what happens.

“So when can you start?”

Steve nearly choked on his coffee, startled. “Excuse me?”

“I asked when you can start working. ‘Cause the school year starts up next week, and I’d like to get you in right from the beginning.”

For a moment, Steve just stared across the desk at his interviewer. Finally he got his brain to communicate with his mouth again. “Mr. Fury, I’m sorry if I’m misunderstanding you, but are you saying—”

“If you want the job, you’ve got it, Captain.” Fury sat back in his chair, and somehow Steve thought he might be enjoying his confusion just a little bit.

“Don’t you have, you know,” Steve fumbled, “other applicants? Not that I don’t want the job,” he rushed, “I just wasn’t expecting an answer so soon.”

Fury spread his hands in a what-are-you-going-to-do gesture. “You’ve got the skills, the qualifications, and the experience the build this department up from scratch. Nobody else came close.”

Steve felt a slight blush rise at the compliment, but soldiered on. “So I got the job?”

“Yep. It’s all yours. Well,” Fury amended, “there’s some paperwork, of course. And a few other things to fill you in on, but yeah, you got the job.”

A pressure Steve hadn’t been allowing himself to acknowledge eased in his chest. He got the job. He had a job. Suddenly the sunshine coming through the window looked a little bit brighter.

Fury pulled a file from his desk drawer and plopped it in front of Steve. Opening it, Steve found a series of lists and pages of densely packed text, spelling out all the rules and regulations of his new job. That was good. Steve liked to know the rules and regulations.

“We’ve already talked about your teaching duties.” Fury said. “In addition, in keeping with our focus on a well-rounded education, we expect each staff member to run a club or activity of their choosing, as well as leading one of our athletic teams.” Steve looked up, mild alarm on his race. Clubs and activities he could do. Sports? Not so much. “Relax.” Fury was definitely amused by this. “The kids are pretty good about student leadership, and we’ll bring in a coach if you don’t know the sport well. We just like to show the kids that they can be involved with all kinds of different stuff all at once.”

“So I don’t actually have to teach the kids how to play?”

“Nah, not if you don’t think you can. Do you have a sport in mind?”

There was no need to put thought into that. There was only one sport Steve had ever really been interested in. “Baseball?”

Fury shook his head. “Sorry, Rogers, I don’t think Rhodes’ll give that one up any time soon.”

“What might be an option, then?”

Fury turned a few pages in the file, reading them upside down. He stopped on a neat, color coded table. “Your best bet is probably to take something off of Romanovs’ hands.”

“Does he do more than one?”

“She does, yeah.” Steve kicked himself. He had to remember he wasn’t going to be around all men all the time anymore. “She’s a woman of many talents. Let’s see, you’re never going to get gymnastics from her… and she’s technically assisting with cheer, anyway….” He looked up. “Know anything about wrestling?”

“Other than how to break up a fight? No.”

“That’s okay. Natasha would probably hang around, anyway, and like I said, we can hire someone if we have to. You okay with that?”

Steve shrugged. “It doesn’t look like anything on this list would be any better.”

“That’s the spirit,” Fury said, and somehow it wasn’t nearly as sarcastic as Steve would have thought. “How about clubs or activities? Got any ideas there?”

“I was thinking an art club would be good, so that the students who are really—”

“I’m gonna pause you right there,” Fury said, holding up a hand, and Steve trailed off, sinking slightly lower in his chair. “Now you can make your own decisions, and if you want to try you certainly can, but I just want to remind you that this is a brand new department we’re starting. I don’t want to see you push it too hard too fast and burn yourself out before we get it off the ground.” Steve could feel the unspoken tag. If he burned out, he would leave the school right back at square one. He got the feeling Fury wasn’t a square one kind of guy. “Like I said, you can do it if you want, but at least for this first semester, I’m gonna encourage you to do something a different, just to make sure we keep things balanced.”

“Any ideas?” Steve asked, doing his best to not be hurt by Fury’s lack of faith.

Fury started turning pages again, looking for the list of activities. “The community service group always needs an extra pair of hands, but that doesn’t count as running the club… we’ve got ROTC, but, again, Rhodes has that one.”

“Rhodes is military?” Steve blurted out, surprised. He immediately tried to backtrack. “Sorry, I just assumed I’d be the only one.”

“We’ve got a few, actually. Two other Americans, a Brit, and….” The light in Fury’s eyes changed, and Steve was suddenly sure Fury had just had an idea that he might not like. “What do you know about film?”

Yeah, this was not going in a direction Steve thought he liked. “I did some propaganda work with the army? Why, do you want to start a film club?”

“Oh, we already have a film club.”

The bad idea was just getting worse. “So you want me to replace whoever’s currently running the film club?”

Fury grinned. “Bingo.”

“May I ask why you want to replace him—them?”

“Mr. Odinson is enthusiastic, but the guy can’t tell a light from a microphone. It’s just not his strength.”

“Sir, frankly I’m not sure that I can do much better than that.”

Fury waved him off. “That’s fine. The kids all know what they’re doing, they just need a supervisor. And Thor’s been bugging me to let him start an astronomy club for months now, so I appreciate the opportunity to give him that time. Unless you have an objection?”

Steve sighed quietly. He did have objections, but he also couldn’t think of a better alternative. “Film club it is, then.”

“Fantastic.” Fury marked something down in the file. “Now, we have staff apartments on campus if you’re interested, or you can find your own place. I’ll warn you, though,” he leaned across the desk, “off campus is pricey. You get far enough out to get reasonable rent and the commute gets ridiculous.”

“I’ll… probably stay here, then.” Lord knew he couldn’t afford to pay more than was necessary, and he certainly didn’t relish the thought of an hour long motorbike ride in the dead of winter.

“Great. I’ll ask Hill to show you around, meet some of the other staff. She can also get you the rest of the paperwork.” Fury stood up and extended a hand, and Steve scrambled up to meet him. “Good to have you on the team, Captain Rogers.” Fury said.

“It’s good to be on the team,” Steve replied. He hoped he was right. Oh god, did he hope he was right.

*** 

Hill, as it turned out, was an efficient, organized woman whose desk in the front office was just as neat as her bun. She led him through the paperwork, the contracts and the forms, and soon enough he felt confident that he could go home and handle signing everything on his own. Finally they got through the last of the packet and Hill checked her watch.

“You’ll want to see the staff apartments?” she asked.

“If it’s no trouble,” Steve replied.

“I have a meeting in ten.” Hill stood up and grabbed an already packed file case from the floor. “That’s not really enough time, but I can take you over to the building. Somebody should be over there who can show you around.”

“It’s not a big deal, really, don’t worry about—” Hill stopped him with a single look.

“It’s not a problem, Captain Rogers. You should see exactly what you’re getting into before you sign off on it.”

Steve stood up and held the office door for her. “Just Steve is fine.”

Hill turned back to look at him. “Maria,” she said. “But never when the kids are around.”

“Of course.” He followed her out of the office.

 *** 

The school’s grounds were beautiful, which if Steve was being honest, might have had a little too much sway in why he picked it. He was already picturing brining his art classes outside to sketch the trees and hedges that bordered the campus, or to paint the flowering bushes that lined most of the buildings. Not that there were that many buildings; just the one academic building, a dormitory, and the staff apartments they were headed to now. The school hadn’t been around that long, but the campus was an old college that had gone under a few decades before. The buildings had all been renovated, but they hadn’t had to do much structural change. Steve had read about it before he applied. What could he say? He did his homework.

As they headed for the three-story brick building in the Northwest corner of campus, they passed a small, but immaculately neat vegetable garden.

“Do you grow some of your own food?” Steve asked, remembering his grandmother having a little herb garden in a window box when he was a kid.

Hill shrugged. “It’s… a work in progress. Though we did get some beautiful tomatoes this summer.”

“Who takes care of it?”

“Bruce. He teaches biology and chemistry, runs the gardening club when the kids are here. He lives in the apartments, you might meet him today.”

They passed the outdoor basketball courts, where a few adults were playing a pickup game.

“Hey, Nat!” Hill called to one of them. A woman with curly red hair held back in a short ponytail turned. Hill gestured for her to come over.

“Steve Rogers, this is Natasha Romanoff.”

“It’s nice to meet you,” Steve said, shaking her hand.

“The pleasure’s all mine,” Natasha replied.

“Captain Rogers is going to be starting up the art department,” Hill said. “I need to get to a meeting, so can you show him around the apartments for me?”

“Of course,” Natasha said, and with that Hill started back towards the academic building, and Steve was left to follow the redhead towards the apartment building.

“Captain, huh?” Natasha asked.

“I did some time in the army,” Steve answered. “Steve is fine, though.”

“Just Natasha for me, then. Except when the kids are around.”

“Got it.”

They reached the front door, and Natasha let them in with her id card. They walked inside, and Steve found himself in a somewhat cramped kitchen/living room. A big wooden dining table took up most of the space, with a series of mismatched couches and armchairs crowded into a corner around a large TV. The dining table, kitchen counters, and parts of the floor were completely covered in papers and file folders, although there was a narrow path to the stairs in the back and each of the doors.

“So this is… the common space?” Steve asked, unsure.

“Yeah. Don’t worry,” Natasha said, sensing his concern. “There’s a kitchen and living space in your apartment, too, we just use this for staff meetings and dinners and stuff like that.”

“Oh,” said Steve, quietly relieved. It wasn’t that he didn’t like the idea of getting to know his co-workers. He just wasn’t prepared to revert to his college dorm days.

They headed for the stairs, Natasha easily stepping over and around stacks of paper while Steve did his best not to knock anything over. “So how much of the staff lives here?” he asked, trying and failing to get around a precariously placed chair without knocking it over.

“Most of us,” Natasha answered, already standing on the bottom stair, leaning over the railing to look at him. “There’s ten apartments; you’re taking the last one. A few people have their own places in town, but they still come over pretty often.”

“Right. And, may I ask…” he finally reached the stairs. “What are all these papers?”

Natasha smirked. “Paperwork for the new school year. You’ll get your own soon. It’s all lesson plans and inventories and request forms.” She started up the stairs. “It’s not actually that bad, we’ve just got a few people who left it all to the last minute.”

“You’re not one of them, I take it?”

She looked back, still wearing a faint smile. “Smart guy.”

They climbed two flights of stairs, putting them on the third, and highest, floor.

“Here we go,” Natasha led him to one of the four doors on the hallway, marked 302.

The apartment was small, not much bigger than your average hotel room, but the big windows made up for it. Facing East meant the room must be flooded with sunlight in the morning, and Steve thought that if he squinted just right, he might just be able to make out the city skyline on a clear day. There was no furniture, but he could already picture his beat up old couch in the corner and his desk right under that wonderful window. The kitchen was small, but the appliances looked fairly new, and there was enough counterspace to cook a meal without running out of room. He peeked through a door into the bedroom, and found more big windows, this time facing South, so that he could see the other buildings on campus. Through other doors were a small but functional bathroom, and a smaller but also functional closet. It was perfect.

“I like it,” Steve said, and he could feel himself grinning.

Natasha leaned back against the kitchen counter. “Everything you need, nothing you don’t,” she said, and Steve could tell she approved of his reaction. “There’s furniture in a basement somewhere if you need anything. It’s just the stuff the kids get in their rooms, but if you don’t want to pay for a desk or a bedframe, it’s a good option.”

“I have my own stuff, but thank you,” Steve said, looking through the kitchen cabinets. They needed dusting, and some of the hinges was squeaky, but there was plenty of room in them.

“In that case, there’s some storage space in the basement, if there’s anything you can’t fit up here. We’ve also got a makeshift gym going down there. Just a treadmill and some dumbbells, but you can use it anytime.”

“Oh, thanks, but I, um…” Steve found himself blushing, which was ridiculous, but he couldn’t make it stop anyway. “I don’t really… do… sports.”

One of Natasha’s eyebrows crept slowly up her forehead. She looked him up and down, clearly questioning how Steve’s appearance belonged to a guy who “didn’t really do sports.”

“This just kind of happened,” he said, and that definitely made things better, that was a great help. Just kind of happened, my ass, he thought.

Natasha was probably thinking the same thing, but she didn’t voice it. “So what did Fury rope you into running?”

Oh right, that was the other thing. “Uh, wrestling. With you, I think.”

There was the smirk again. “Do you know any—”

“No,” Steve cut her off, “I know absolutely nothing about wrestling.”

“Right,” Natasha nodded. “There are some mats down in the basement. I can show you the basics sometime, if you want.”

“That would be wonderful,” Steve said, and he was probably more grateful than he should have been, but if he was perfectly honest with himself the thought of supervising a bunch of high schoolers doing a sport he had absolutely no experience with had been stressing him out quite a bit.

“It’s a date,” Natasha said, and headed for the door. “I live right across the hall. Let me know if you need help with anything.”

“Will do,” Steve said, following her out. They retraced their steps out of the building and back out into the sunshine. Steve could already feel himself falling in love with the campus. Suddenly he couldn’t wait to get started. “I can get back to the front office on my own,” he said to Natasha. “Thank you for showing me around.”

“No problem,” she said. “I think you’ll be a good addition to the team.”

“I certainly hope so.”

That won him a quiet chuckle, and with that Natasha headed back to the basketball court with a wave. Steve watched her rejoin the other staff members, and wondered if next summer he’d be out there playing a pickup game and covering the common room with paperwork for the next year. He was a little surprised to find that he hoped so.


End file.
